of
this school, the greater part were Arabs of the Greek Church; two were
Jewesses; and some were Druzes; and at times there were eight or ten
Moslems.

A Sabbath School, with five teachers and thirty pupils, was established
at the same time, the majority of the scholars being girls. A native
female prayer-meeting was also commenced at this time, conducted by
three missionary ladies and two native Protestant women. At times, as
many as twenty were present, and this first female prayer-meeting in
Syria in modern times, was attended with manifest tokens of the Divine
blessing.

As has been already stated, the seclusion of Oriental females renders
it almost impossible for a male missionary to visit among them or hold
religious meetings exclusively for women. This must be done, if at all,
by the missionary's wife or by Christian women devoted especially to
this work. It was true in 1834, and it is almost equally true in 1873.
The Arabs have a proverb, "The tree is not cut down, but by a branch of
itself;" _i.e._ the axe handle is of wood. So none can reach the women
of Syria but women. The Church of Rome understands this, and is sending
French, Italian and Spanish nuns in multitudes to work upon the girls
and women of Syria, and the women of the Syria Mission, married and
unmarried, have done a noble work in the past in the elevation and
education of their Syrian sisters. And in this connection it should be
observed, that a _sine qua non_ of efficient usefulness among the women
of Syria, is that the Christian women who labor for them should know the
Arabic language. Ignorance of the language is regarded by the people as
indicating a want of sympathy with them, and is an almost insuperable
barrier to a true spiritual influence. The great work to be done for the
women of the world in the future, is to be done in their own
mother-tongue, and it would be well that all the Female Seminaries in
foreign lands should be so thoroughly supplied with teachers, that those
most familiar with the native language could be free to devote a portion
of their time to labors among the native women in their homes.

In 1834 and 1835 Mrs. Dodge conducted a school for Druze girls in
Aaleih, in Lebanon. This School in Aaleih, a village about 2300 feet
above the level of the sea, was once suddenly broken up. Not a girl
appeared at the morning session. A rumor had spread through the village,
that the English fleet had come up Mount Lebanon from Be